Since major league clubs finalized their reserve lists (also known as 40-man rosters) on November 20, the Internet has been abuzz with speculation about the Rule 5 draft. This year's Rule 5 draft takes place on December 11 at the end of the annual Winter Meetings. So what exactly is the Rule 5 draft and why are people so excited about it? Perhaps more importantly for us, how have the Brewers participated in it over the years?

The Rule 5 draft is intended to move players who may be blocked on talent-rich clubs to clubs who aren't stocked with as many skilled players. It's not a modern invention--the first Rule 5 draft took place all the way back in 1903. Back then, players were subject to the reserve clause, binding them to their teams for as long as the team saw fit. Without a chance to ever freely move from team to team, players could be blocked by established veterans for years. More important in the eyes of many owners, wealthier teams could stockpile good players and keep them in the minors indefinitely, creating a nearly inexhaustible depth chart of talented players and keeping major league talent from less wealthy teams. To combat this stockpiling, the Rule 5 draft was invented. During the draft, teams could select players left unprotected by other teams in the hopes the players would blossom into quality big leaguers. While the draft was (and is) hit or miss, it contained enough diamonds in the rough to keep teams interested.

To prevent teams from completely raiding each other's systems, however, a couple ground rules were laid down: first, there was a fee charged for each pick. Second, each pick had to remain on the drafting team's major league roster for the entire season after the draft. If the drafting team wanted to send the player they selected to the minors for more seasoning, he first had to be offered back to his original team for the waiver price. Sometimes teams would no longer have room for the drafted player to return and they let his new organization keep him, but these two basic rules kept teams from drafting too many players each season.

Those rules are still in place (with enhancements) today. Each Rule 5 draft pick costs $50,000 and must stay on the big league roster for a full season. Ninety days of that season must be spent on the Active List (i.e., not the disabled/military/etc. list). If the player fails to reach that ninety days in his first season with the club, he must stay on the major league roster during the next season until he reaches ninety days. This prevents stashing a guy on the disabled list all year just to keep him in the system. If the drafting team wants to release their pick or send him to the minors, he must clear waivers and then be offered back to his original team for $25,000. If the player's original team chooses not to reclaim him, his new team can treat him as just another player in their system. What has changed over the years are the eligibility requirements for the draft. To be eligible for the Rule 5 draft today, a player:

• Must not be on his organization's 40-man roster
• If 19 or older on the June 5th before he signed his first contract, must have spent four seasons in the majors or minors.
• If 18 or older on the June 5th before he signed his first contract, must have spent five seasons in the majors or minors.

There are also rules governing which teams can select players in the draft: teams select in reverse order of that season's finish and since a Rule 5 draft pick automatically is added to a team's 40-man roster, the team must have an open roster slot in order to pick. For example, the Rockies had 40 players on their 40-man roster at the time of the 1999 Rule 5 draft, so they couldn't make a selection.

In addition to the major league Rule 5 draft described above, there are two minor league phases of the draft. In the AAA phase, players eligible for for the Rule 5 draft but not on a team's 40-man roster or in AAA can be selected for $12,000. In the AA phase, eligible players from below AA can be selected for $4,000. Selected players do not have to be offered back to their original clubs once picked. Usually players picked in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft are roster filler for minor league affiliates, but occasionally future major leaguers are selected. One example is Giants utilityman Eugenio Velez, plucked from the Blue Jays in the AAA phase of the 2005 draft.

So now that we've hashed out all the specifics of who can pick and be picked in the draft, let's look at how the Brewers have used the Rule 5 draft throughout the years. It's easy to find all the selections during the last decade since they're easily accessible online. Unfortunately, complete drafts from before then are not available online, so finding selections becomes a matter of combing through transactions lists and finding guys who eventually made it to the majors. It's safe to assume there were a number of Brewers Rule 5 draft selections from 1970 to the late 1990's that never made it to the majors and thus aren't on those lists. Thus this isn't a complete list of all Brewers Rule 5 picks but it is, I believe, a complete list of Brewers picks (and players bought immediately from other teams) who at some point played in the majors.

Drafted by Brewers				Drafted From Brewers
Name	Position	Year	Picked From	Name	Position	Year	Picked By
Edward Campusano	LHP	2006	CHC	Callix Crabbe	IF	2007	SDP
Marcos Carvajal	RHP	2004	LAD	Ramon Garcia	RHP	1996	HOU
Jeff Bennett	RHP	2003	PIT	Marc Ronan	C	1995	NYY
Enrique Cruz	SS	2002	NYM	Bobby M. Jones	RHP	1994	COL
Matt Ford	RHP	2002	TOR	Tim Fortugno	LHP	1991	CAL
Jorge Sosa	RHP	2001	SEA	Dwayne Hosey	OF	1991	SDP
Ryan Christenson	OF	2001	ARI	Dave Stapleton	LHP	1988	HOU
Matt Williams	RHP	1999	NYY	Gibson Alba	LHP	1987	STL
Al Reyes	RHP	1994	MON	Bob Gibson	RHP	1986	CHW
Jose Mercedes	RHP	1993	BAL	Jeff Parrett	RHP	1985	MON
Graeme Lloyd	LHP	1992	TOR	Willie Lozado	IF	1984	STL
Rob Lukachyk	OF	1991	CHW	Jesus Vega	1B	1977	MIN
Matias Carrillo	LHP	1987	PIT	Ron Tompkins	RHP	1970	CHC
Vicente Palacios	RHP	1986	PIT
Brian Giles	IF	1984	NYM
Jamie Nelson	C	1983	SEA
Mike Warren	RHP	1981	OAK
Tom Candiotti	RHP	1980	KCR
Mark Brouhard	OF	1979	CAL
Ned Yost	C	1977	NYM
Marshall Edwards	OF	1976	OAK
Jeff Yurak	OF	1976	NYM
Aurelio Monteagudo	RHP	1971	KCR

Players in italics were selected during the minor league portion of the draft.

You might be wondering who Edward Campusano and Marcos Carvajal are. They were picked by the Brewers but immediately sold to Detroit and Colorado, respectively. Similarly, Graeme Lloyd was picked by the Phillies and was promptly traded to the Brewers. Obviously, the Brewers have been more active as "buyers" than "sellers" during the Rule 5 draft when it comes to guys who made the majors, especially recently. That's not a big surprise, as bad teams don't usually have much worth taking from their farm system, unless something goes terribly wrong.

The Brewers have also dabbled in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft in the past few years. I could only find full details for those drafts going back to 2002, but here's a quick list of players selected by the Brewers:

• Joe Bateman (RHP) in 2007, from San Francisco
  
• Richard Campbell (RHP) in 2007, from Washington
• Juan Sandoval (RHP) in 2007, from Seattle
• Michael Carlin (1B) in 2006, from Pittsburgh
• Steve Bray (RHP) in 2006, from Kansas City
• Landon Stockman (RHP) in 2004, from Cleveland
• Juan Cerros (RHP) in 2004, from Cincinnati
• Ryan Costello (LHP) in 2003, from Toronto
• David Manning (RHP) in 2002, from Minnesota

Outside of Bateman, Bray, and maybe Manning, that's a list that makes you say, "who?" See what I meant when I said the minor league portion is used for roster filler? The Brewers didn't lose much in those drafts either: the most notable names are RHP Ben Diggins (2005), LHP John Foster (2003), OF Pete Zoccolillo (2003), and the other RHP Dan Kolb (2004).

So now you know more than you ever thought you would about the Brewers and the Rule 5 draft. Will the Crew pick a player to keep for themselves for the first time in six years? Will anyone from the Brewers system be picked by another team? The answer to both questions is "probably not," but you never know. Anyone the Brewers pick will be able to commiserate with manager Ken Macha, himself a Rule 5 pick in 1978. That player will also join a list that has some surprisingly good names and an awful lot of forgotten ones.

Further Reading on the Rule 5 Draft:
Rule 5 draft information from Baseball America
Hardball Times article about interesting historical Rule 5 picks
Major League Rule 5 draft results back to 1998
A summary of Major League Rule 5
Retrosheet transactions data

So on Friday I saw a friend, who greeted me with a hug. We had the following exchange:

"Hey, how are you?"
"Good. I'm finally getting over my cold."
"Oh...thanks for the hug, then."

I'm guessing you can about imagine how that turned out.

Win Expectancy Graph
BR Box Score

So CC Sabathia threw 130 pitches last night to finish his fifth complete game with the Brewers, giving him the outright NL lead in CG. Ben Sheets has 4. Only five other NL pitchers have more than one. Only 29 NL pitchers, given a full season to work on it, have accumulated more than 8 wins. Sabathia's done that since July.

But the fact remains that he threw 130 pitches last night in a situation where it almost certainly wasn't necessary. Baseball Musings and Defensive Indifference came down hard on Ned Yost for letting Sabathia finish the game.

In the meantime, Chop-n-Change notes that 7 of Sabathia's top ten most comparable pitchers were done by age 31, which is why they're hoping the Braves won't sign him.

Even if no one else in the bullpen was ready, Salomon Torres was available to pitch last night. Also in that story: Rickie Weeks is feeling better and may not hit the DL after all.

Ryan Braun left last night's game after aggravating his intercostal strain swinging and missing. After the game, Braun downplayed the severity of the injury...I guess we'll see. In-Between Hops correctly predicted the development.

A lot was made of Cecil Cooper's prediction that the Astros would sweep the Brewers this week. There weren't very many people on the bandwagon with him, though. A poll at Crawfish Boxes showed that 38% of fans thought the Astros would win one game out of 3, and Astros beat writer Brian McTaggart thinks they'll get swept.

One note got buried in today's The Official Site's Game Preview: Jason Kendall needs seven more starts to tie the record for the most starts by a catcher in a single season in franchise history. Even if Mike Rivera starts 3 times in the next 10 games, Jason Kendall will have caught more games than any catcher in Brewer history before September 1st.

On injuries:

A's SP Justin Duchsherer left last night's game in the 3rd inning with inflammation in his hip.
Twins SS Adam Everett was hit in the hand by a foul ball last night, but X-rays were negative. He's day-to-day, just like the rest of us.
Nats C Jesus Flores hasn't played since Saturday with a sprained knee.
Ian Kinsler is likely done for the year after being diagnosed with a sports hernia.
Twins OF Delmon Young jammed his ankle last night and may miss some time.

Has there ever been a post-deadline trading period that was this active? The Dodgers reportedly acquired Greg Maddux yesterday.

This is why teams don't want their top prospects playing in the Olympics: Matt LaPorta is day-to-day (and lucky to not be much worse) after being hit in the head with a pitch during Monday's game against China.

Al Reyes is not one of TheJay's active pitchers who faced the AL Brewers, but he did spend 3 seasons as a member of the AL Brewers. Today, he's looking for work after refusing an outright assignment and being released by the Rays.

Oh, and Sabathia's win last night may not have looked that surprising, but according to NBC Olympic announcer Al Trautwig, winning when everyone expects it is one of the most difficult things in sports. Click the link to read Keith Law's reply.

Drink up.

So, as Jeff mentioned in yesterday's Plastic Cup, I was on the road yesterday. A brief anecdote from the road:

The fiancee and I were traveling together yesterday, and my last item of business was finished a couple of hours before hers. So there I was, in the back of a coffee shop, headphones in, listening to the Brewers, waiting for the call that would say "it's time to go." I tuned in around the time Manny Parra was exiting. I spent about 4 innings wishing she would hurry up and call, as the game was...well, less than encouraging. But I was there when Prince's double tied it in the 8th, and I was trying hard not to make a scene when Ryan Braun singled to lead off the 10th...

And the phone rang. "Ok, I'm ready for you to pick me up." I reluctantly packed my things, walked to the parking garage, and by the time XM Radio could pick up reception, it was 5-3 in the bottom of the 10th. Not only did I miss Prince's first home run, I didn't even know that's how they scored until the post-game show. Hopefully I'll catch about 50 more of them this season to even it out.

Win Expectancy Graph
Baseball Reference Box Score
ESPN Video Highlights
Baseball Digest Daily Recaps

With the win, Baseball Prospectus' Postseason Odds have the Brewers winning exactly 81 games, with a 16.2% chance of winning the Central.

All kinds of stuff about Prince following the game:

Tom H. has Fielder's postgame quotes.
Home Run Derby named it Home Run of the Day.
In-Between Hops notes the Fielder is even with his home run pace from last year, but would need to hit 4 in his next 5 games to keep it up.
Baseball Musings notes that, before the HR, 7 of Prince's 13 hits had come with runners in scoring position.
Yahoo has a photo of Prince rounding the bases.

Also, if you're looking for quotes from the Cardinals regarding yesterday's game, Fungoes has a wealth of them.

Bugs and Cranks has a nice review of the situation at the back end of the rotation, with Bush, Villanueva and Parra holding spots and Gallardo looking for one.

Speaking of Villanueva, John Sickels has an in depth look at him.

He's had one at bat in the last three days, but Ken Rosenthal still can't get enough Gabe Kapler.

Forbes has released their annual valuations of all 30 MLB teams. The Brewers rank 24th.

Brief Alphabetical Morning (BAM) Injury Reports:

Erik Bedard may have torn cartilage in his hip. I'm not sure what that means for his return.
Carlos Beltran missed last night's 14-inning marathon with a stiff neck.
Rangers OF Marlon Byrd has been placed on the DL with a sore knee.
Braves reliever Peter Moylan is out for the season with a bone spur pressing against the UCL in his elbow.
Rays reliever Al Reyes is on the DL with an impinged shoulder.
Richie Sexson will miss a game or two with nagging shoulder and leg pain.
Miguel Tejada isn't hurt, but he sure is aging fast.

Speaking of things that'll make you age fast, the Rockies and Padres played 22 innings last night. Even Fangraphs gave up after 17.

Two stories out there today showing Cub fans in a (well deserved?) negative light: First, via Redleg Nation, I found this clip of Marty Brennaman's reaction to Cub fans throwing dozens of balls on the field following a home run. Also, Fukudome's reaction to a racist t-shirt being sold by vendors outside Wrigley is a must read. I know a lot of very bright, intelligent Cubs fans that are a credit to their franchise...it's just unfortunate they seem to be in the minority.

Bucs Dugout continues their search for baseball's worst GM. Polls are open right now for Omar Minaya v. Jim Hendry and Ken Williams v. Wayne Krivsky.

Gaslamp Ball wants to hear about your favorite baseball books.

Finally, in response to a question asked in the game thread a couple of nights ago, TheJay has compiled a list of the last players to wear #42 for every franchise. Scott Karl was the last Brewer, and also the last Rockie. Interestingly enough, Mo Vaughn was the last player to wear #42 for three teams.

That's all for today. I'm back on the road in a few hours, so Jeff will be filling in again tomorrow and Sunday. If you have something to submit for inclusion in a future Mug, please post it in the comments. Drink up.